Jonas Vingegaard tightened his grip on the yellow jersey in the Tour de France after he blew away Tadej Pogacar in the individual time trial on stage 16.
The Dane won the 22.4km route from Passy to Combloux in 32 minutes 36 seconds on a decisive day of the Tour.
Vingegaard’s impressive ride increased his overall lead over Pogacar from 10 seconds to one minute and 48 seconds.
Britain’s Adam Yates moves up to third place and is five seconds ahead of Carlos Rodriguez with five stages left.
Two-time winner Pogacar now faces a huge task to claw back ground on the defending champion before the Tour finishes in Paris on Sunday.
“Is the Tour de France over? No. There’s still a lot of hard stages to go. We have to keep fighting for the stages to come,” Vingegaard said.
“I think it’s the best time trial I have ever done and I think today I surprised myself with the time trial I did. I did not expect to do so well, it’s my first time trial win in the Tour de France.
“I was feeling great today and I am really happy with the victory. I want to say thanks for the team. They guided me well today.”
This was only Vingegaard’s second career time trial win, following his success at the Gran Camino in Spain at the start of the season, and it appears to have put him in complete control of a Tour that, before Tuesday, was exceptionally close.
The 26-year-old produced an awesome show of strength to destroy his nearest rival, who was still the second-fastest finisher on the stage but lost time on the race leader almost from the moment he rolled off the start ramp.
Vingegaard reached the first checkpoint at 7.1km with a 16-second advantage over Pogacar and had stretched his lead to 31 seconds by the time he reached the foot of the Cote de Domancy.
While the Slovenian switched to a lighter road bike, hoping to make up time on the climb, Vingegaard stayed on his time-trial bike and was still much quicker up to the finish.
Vingegaard’s team-mate Wout van Aert was third on the stage, with Simon Yates fifth and Adam Yates seventh – enough for him to overturn his 19-second deficit to Rodriguez and move into the podium positions.
The race returns to the high mountains on Wednesday for stage 17, a daunting 165.7km route from Saint-Gervais Mont Blanc to Courchevel that features four huge climbs.
Stage 16 results
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 32mins 36secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +1mins 38secs
3. Wout van Aert (Bel/Jumbo-Visma) +2mins 51secs
4. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +2mins 55secs
5. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +2mins 58secs
6. Remi Cavagna (Fra/Soudal-Quick-Step) +3mins 6secs
7. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +3mins 12secs
8. Mattias Skjelmose (Den/Lidl-Trek) +3mins 21secs
9. Mads Pedersen (Den/Lidl-Trek) +3mins 31secs
10. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama) +3mins 31secs
General classification after stage 16
1. Jonas Vingegaard (Den/Jumbo-Visma) 63hrs 6mins 53secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slo/UAE Team Emirates) +1min 48secs
3. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +8mins 52secs
4. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +8mins 57secs
5. Jai Hindley (Aus/Bora-Hansgrohe) +11mins 15secs
6. Sepp Kuss (US/Jumbo-Visma) +12mins 56secs
7. Pello Bilbao (Spa/Bahrain Victorious) +13mins 6secs
8. Simon Yates (GB/Team Jayco-AlUla) +13mins 46secs
9. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama-FDJ) +17mins 38secs
10. Felix Gall (Aut/AG2R) +18mins 19secs
